Concept R18 cruiser

Now BMW Motorrad has revealed its Concept R18 cruiser at the 90th the Concorso d’Eleganza show at Lake Como in Italy.

Surely this confirms that BMW will return to the cruiser market it abandoned 15 years ago.

BMW built the R 1200 C cruiser from 1997 to 2004. It was a flop, but in recent years has become a collector and customiser favourite.

BMW R 1200 C

Concept R18 cruiser was built for BMW Motorrad by Unique Custom Cycles of Sweden, so it’s not the final version that BMW is expected to release.

This is a simplistic model with minimalist design.

No doubt the Germans will give it some Bavarian hi-tech and quirky design as they did with the R nineT after Roland Sands designed the Concept 90.

RSD Concept Ninety

BMW R nineT

The R18 cruiser will be powered by the biggest boxer engine they have produced, believed to be 1798.4cc in an over-square configuration (107 x 100mm) which means the pistons are wider than they are long.

Otherwise, the heads would hang out so far you couldn’t lane filter!

It also means it should rev better than other big-bore cruisers.

Interestingly, it is not liquid cooled, but is likely to be twin spark to meet Euro 5 emissions standards coming in 2020.

Don’t be fooled by the Solex carburettors. They may just be dummies like when Triumph’s Bonnevilles went EFI.

As for the rest of the Concept R18 and a likely BMW production model, we should regard these words from BMW:

Who cares what BMW do. They are now officially less reliable than Harley Davidson and in my experience (And a number of people I have talked to) a dishonourable company who refuse to obey consumer laws and need to be taken to court to get them to behave.
Going by their current problems with spoke wheels (at least one Aussie rider in hospital after a BMW front wheel collapsed under brakes) I wouldn’t be game to ride it.

I usually don’t like the cruiser look but to me this is a very attractive motorcycle. Being a BMW I’m sure it will have decent cornering clearance, performance and after a few teething problems reliability. It won’t convince me to replace my 1200GS though.
If I ever feel wealthy enough I could see one of these as a 2nd bike.